Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
I guess this is where I'm really unclear. Who exactly rates an issue sidearm and who doesn't?.
|
Officers, MPs and people with high security workstations (the kind where they are expected to shoot unauthorized personnel, like with nuclear weapon security).
Quote:
Commissioned officers in combat branches do and maybe just all commissioned officers, period. I'm not 100% certain that this is how it works in reality, but decades of movies have convinced me that even if an officer is not combat arms, he still gets a sidearm to wear with his shiny dress uniform.
|
Yeah it is some weird status thing now. Grant would probably hate it.
Quote:
I have no idea whether warrant officers or senior NCOs are generally issued sidearms or if that is only for MOSes like CID.
|
The only warrants I am familiar with are Marine Gunners who absolutely are qualified for pistols, because they are experts on every infantry weapons as their entire
raison d'être.
Quote:
Nor do I know if MPs or Counterintelligence specialists carry a pistol for self-defence on deployements and/or whether they may perhaps even be issued them at home, because they are effectively acting as cops.
|
Yes, American police are expected to be armed in general.
Quote:
I've got some sort of hazy idea that enlisted personnel in roles that might call for their deployment to a base in a country that technically counts as combat, but not ones that will ever get them humping a pack or rifle out on patrol, might be issued a pistol for self-defence rather than a rifle.
|
Not that I know of.